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I would like to upgrade my laptop's (Dell M70) hard drive to an SSD, such as the Intel X25-M MLC SSD or a Dell 128 GB Serial ATA SSD. Do SSDs require any special hardware to work properly, or is installing an SSD in place of a regular hard drive OK?

The page for the Dell SSD doesn't list my laptop as compatible, so that's why I'm asking :)

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Look at superuser.com/questions/45988/… – Bender Sep 26 '09 at 8:04
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Just a word of caution: Dell Support will not answer after this, and some people got into a whole lot of trouble by trying it. – harrymc Sep 26 '09 at 9:09
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@harrymc: If any problems were encountered with the laptop, why couldn't he just put the old hard drive back in before contacting Dell? ;) – Breakthrough Sep 26 '09 at 12:03
@Breakthrough: this means he has to keep the old drive intact and ready. – harrymc Sep 26 '09 at 12:54
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2 Answers

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You'll have to find a Parallel ATA (PATA) SSD.

alt text

Serial ATA (SATA) SSDs will not work with your M70.

Dell Precision M70 Mobile Workstation for Business specification. Storage controller type: EIDE.

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Is there any benefit here though - surely it won't be as fast for instance. – Rich Bradshaw Oct 25 '09 at 8:00
the benefits: they will fit the controller in question, and they're certainly faster than conventional platter hard disk drives. – Molly7244 Oct 25 '09 at 11:54
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up vote 0 down vote

Edit: read Molly's post! You can only use the SSD if the laptop actually support S-ATA, else it's not possible.

In case it does work and you install Windows 7, it will detect the SSD and turns off functions like defragmentation and the like, for the rest there is no real difference.

And be sure to check the answer given by caliban in the other question, which is excellent!

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nah, Ivo, he wouldn't be OK, the Dell M70 is over 4 years old and doesn't have a SATA controller. – Molly7244 Sep 26 '09 at 14:55
Ah well if it can't handle S-ATA drives this whole question is a non-issue: buy a new laptop :P – Ivo Flipse♦ Sep 26 '09 at 15:23
not necessarily, you can still get PATA SSDs. – Molly7244 Sep 26 '09 at 17:36
Hi all, thanks for your replies. "lshw" on Linux lists a "82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller". I've also removed the hard drive to have a look at the port, and the hard drive is a regular ATA drive, but has a port converter from ATA to SATA (15 pins). So I guess a SATA hard drive should work :) Any comments on this? – user12420 Sep 27 '09 at 11:43
If SATA works, SSDs should work just the same. Note that a good SSD could also be placed in a newer laptop if you ever upgrade – Ivo Flipse♦ Sep 27 '09 at 20:27
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